The Veal-Fattening-Pen

It all started in Denver, Colorado in 1953. A young designer and inventor named Robert Probst setup shop. He was a talented inventor, and had true intentions to simplify and change the way people lived and worked.

He was a professor of fine arts at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His inventions were varied; from a vertical timber harvester, to jet planes, to a quality control system for concrete.

There is one invention, however, for which he is most famous... or infamous.

Herman Miller called upon him in 1962 to help them design a system of office furniture. Probst wanted to capture the restlessness of the era, as well as allow workers to move freely about the office. The solution that he came up with, which Miller would give surrogate birth to in 1964, was called the "Action Office". This would be the progenitor of the cubicle.

But it started with the best intentions. It had light, sleek, ergonomic lines, adjustable-height workspaces for those who preferred to stand and work, comfortable chairs, and a transparent under-carriage and structure. It was only a few years before all grace and transparency was stripped, and even it's fairest virtue, mobility, was being subjugated. Office managers used the system to save money on construction costs, by renting large open floors and filling them with tightly packed rows of dividers. As an added benefit, the office manager could also use a shortened depreciation for temporary dividers, making a genuine impact on renovation costs to a growing company.

The rules of economy prevailed, and cubicles were seldom changed, or moved, or stylish, or airy. In fact, they became a serviceable way to cram as many middle-managers onto one floor of an office building as they would tolerate, without causing an insurrection. Julie Schlosser, in Fortune Magazine, would call it "The Fidel Castro of office furniture." And, as it turns out, white collar suck-ups had a high tolerance for degradation.

Later in life, Robert Probst regretted his involvement in this dehumanizing debacle, as the origins of his ideas were perverted into what he called "Monolithic Insanity"

So it is with that preamble in place that I give you:
Wired.com's "Saddest Cubicle" contest.